Left and right damper bases are provided on a rear of a vehicle body to support upper parts of dampers of left and right rear suspensions. An external force acting in a push-up direction from a road surface, that is, a road surface reaction force is transmitted from the left and right dampers to the left and right damper bases. On the other hand, the development of a technique to increase rigidity of the rear of the vehicle body has been advanced. A vehicle rear body structure having such a configuration is known in Patent Literature 1, for example.
The vehicle rear body structure known in Patent Literature 1 has a configuration in which left and right damper bases are provide on upper ends of left and right rear wheel houses. Left and right rear pillars extending upward are provided at outer sides of the left and right damper bases in a vehicle width direction. Left and right roof side rails extending in the front-and-rear direction of the vehicle body are provided at the upper ends of the left and right rear pillars. The left and right roof side rails support a roof.
The left rear pillar is reinforced by a left gusset and a left stiffener. The left gusset is stretched between the left damper base and the left roof side rail and is provided on an inner surface of the left rear pillar in the vehicle width direction. The left stiffener is provided inside the left rear pillar. As a result, the left rear pillar can be prevented from falling down in the vehicle width direction. The same configuration is also applied to the right rear pillar.
In Patent Literature 1, however, as described above, the left and right rear pillars are provided at the outer sides the left and right damper bases in the vehicle width direction. That is, the left and right rear pillars are offset in the vehicle width direction from the center of the left and right damper base to which the damper is attached. For this reason, when the external force acting in the push-up direction from the road surface, that is, the road surface reaction force is transmitted from the left and right suspension dampers to the left and right damper bases, a bending moment in the vehicle width direction may be generated in the left and right rear pillars. This is disadvantageous for suppressing generation of road noise, and there is room for further improvement. On the other hand, it is considered that a separate reinforcing member is additionally provided from the left and right damper bases to the left and right rear pillars. However, when the reinforcing member is additionally provided to increase rigidity against the bending moment, it is not advisable because the weight of the vehicle body increases.